Michael C. Desch
Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security
Experience
Michael Desch is Director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, Professor, and Robert M. Gates Chair in Intelligence & National Security Decision Making at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, at Texas A&M University.
Winter 2011/12
"Correspondence: Civilians, Soldiers, and the Iraq Surge Decision"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 3, volume 36
By Richard Betts, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1974-1975; Editorial Board, Quarterly Journal: International Security, Michael C. Desch, Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security and Peter D. Feaver, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1985-1987; Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security
Richard K. Betts and Michael C. Desch respond separately to Peter D. Feaver's spring 2011 International Security article, "The Right to Be Right: Civil-Military Relations and the Iraq Surge Decision."
AP Photo
Winter 2007/08
"America's Liberal Illiberalism: The Ideological Origins of Overreaction in U.S. Foreign Policy"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 3, volume 32
By Michael C. Desch, Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security
In recent years, Democrats and Republicans have endorsed illiberal policies that include the pursuit of global hegemony, the launching of a preventive war, restrictions on civil liberties, and torture. These policies seem to contradict the Liberal tradition of the United States, but it is precisely this tradition that compels Americans to spread their values around the world and combat terrorism in this way. Only a foreign policy strategy based on realism—a decidedly non-Liberal way of viewing the world—will preserve the domestic virtues of Liberalism while diminishing its negative effects abroad.
Summer 2003
"Democracy and Victory: Fair Fights or Food Fights?"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 28
By Michael C. Desch, Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security
Desch replies to the critiques of Choi, Lake, Reiter, and Stam.
Fall 2002
"Democracy and Victory: Why Regime Type Hardly Matters"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 2, volume 27
By Michael C. Desch, Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security
Michael Desch argues that “democratic defeatists” considered democracy a “decided liability” in war fighting. More recently, “democratic triumphalists” have argued that democracies, whether because they more carefully select the wars they wage or because they fight more effectively, are more likely to win in war.
Summer 1999
"Correspondence: Isms and Schisms: Culturalism versus Realism in Security Studies"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 24
By John Duffield, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1988-1989, Theo Farrell, Richard Price and Michael C. Desch, Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security
In separate letters to the editors, John Duffield, Theo Farrell, and Richard Price take issue with Michael Desch's position that culturalism can at best supplement realism in the study of international relations. Desch responds.
Summer 1998
"Culture Clash: Assessing the Importance of Ideas in Security Studies"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 23
By Michael C. Desch, Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security
The author offers a critical review of cultural theories in the field of international security studies. He divides the literature on cultural theory into three distinct phases, or “waves”: the World War II, Cold War, and post–Cold War waves.
